The Tragedy in Israel and Gaza Strip... Collected Bodies in an Ice Cream Truck

Total Death Toll on Both Sides Exceeds 4,000

The war that began with the attack by the Palestinian armed faction Hamas on Israel has entered its ninth day on the 15th (local time), with the death toll on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides surpassing 4,000. With an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip imminent, more casualties seem inevitable.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the cumulative death toll reached 2,670 on this day. The Israeli side reported about 1,500 deaths by the evening, bringing the total death toll on both sides to approximately 4,100. As the Israeli military continues airstrikes daily, the number of injured in the Gaza Strip has risen to about 9,600.

Amid ongoing armed clashes between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel, a boy injured in an Israeli airstrike lies in a hospital in the Gaza Strip on the 15th (local time). [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

In the heart of the Gaza Strip's city center, turned into a battlefield, civilians are dying, and medical facilities are overwhelmed. According to AP News, citing local medical staff, it is expected that thousands of the injured will die due to shortages of medicines and fuel for power generation.

At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, the intensive care unit is filled with children under three years old injured by airstrikes, and the hospital's fuel for power generation is unlikely to last beyond the 16th.

Health authorities reported that as morgues are full, bodies are being moved to ice cream refrigerated trucks and tents. Dr. Yasser Ali of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah said, "The hospital's morgue is full, so we brought ice cream freezers from an ice cream factory to use as a temporary morgue." He added that the temporary morgue has also exceeded capacity, and some bodies are piled up in tents.

Philippe Lazzarini, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) representative, expressed concern, saying, "An unprecedented humanitarian crisis is unfolding before our eyes."

As Israel, which launched a large-scale retaliatory response against Hamas, is expected to soon deploy ground forces into the Gaza Strip, the international community has also expressed unified concern.

The Arab League (AU), composed of Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and those in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, issued a joint statement with the African Union (AL), which has 55 member countries across Africa, saying on this day, "The catastrophe must be prevented before it is too late."

Both organizations urged the withdrawal of plans for a ground offensive, warning that the possible deployment of Israeli ground forces in the Gaza Strip could lead to "an unprecedented scale of mass slaughter."

Police in Sderot, southern Israel, are extinguishing fires caused by rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

Egypt, which has maintained a relatively neutral stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, also voiced criticism regarding the deployment of Israeli ground forces.

According to the Arab media Al Arabiya, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel's response to Hamas airstrikes "has shifted from legitimate self-defense to a form of collective punishment against the residents of the Gaza Strip."

President el-Sisi emphasized the need to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and mentioned, "We are making efforts to prevent the conflict in the Gaza Strip from spreading elsewhere."

Iran also strongly condemned Israel. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on this day, according to the semi-official Iranian Fars News Agency, "If the Zionists (Israel) do not stop their attacks, the hands of all parties in the region will be on the trigger."

Minister Amir-Abdollahian stressed, "The formation of new potential resistance fronts in the region and the escalation of today's war are both directly the responsibility of the United States and the Zionist regime."

This statement can also be interpreted as implying that if Israel continues its retaliatory attacks against Hamas, including the declared ground operation in the Gaza Strip, surrounding Islamic countries such as Iran, Lebanon, and Syria may support Hamas and intervene militarily.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.